‘THE BOY UNIVERSE’ DIGITAL PLATFORM
EQUIPPING ASPIRANT ACTORS WITH CONTENT CREATION and MULTI-PLATFORM STORYTELLING SKILLS
Created by students training within East 15 Acting School's Certificate of HE Theatre Arts.
Process Designed and Facilitated by Chris Meads.
In April 2020 a group of 21 students training within East 15 Acting School’s Certificate of HE Theatre Arts, a foundation degree level programme of learning, were all set to begin rehearsals with me for a theatre production of Leo Butler's play Boy, to be staged in East 15 Acting School's Corbett Theatre.
But then lockdown happened.
This page is dedicated to a discussion of the innovative distanced-learning model that I designed and facilitated in response to these circumstances (at very short notice!): The Boy Universe project.
Watch the short video trailer, below, for a vibrant introduction to The Boy Universe project.
Over six weeks, the learners engaged in intensive online collaboration to develop self-taping, screen acting, screenwriting and film-making skills, using their phones or laptops in conjunction with free video editing apps. Located in different parts of the country, even in different countries, our collaborative process was facilitated by Zoom classes and by PADLET online collaboration software. Moreover, I introduced the learners to trans-media storytelling techniques, which inspired us to transform and expand Leo Butler’s play Boy to offer audiences an online, multi-platform storytelling experience: The Boy Universe Digital Platform….
Discover the learners’ incredible resourcefulness by watching the ‘Making Of’ video below.
Click the logos below to meet the four online-media production teams who made The Boy Universe.
‘THE BOY UNIVERSE’ PROCESS
first-time filmakers in lockdown circumstances
“Every step of this process has been a learning curve for me and I am finishing this project with a new found passion for film-making. 6 weeks ago, I didn’t even know where to start with some of the tasks we had been set, but now I am able to come up with ideas, storyboard them, compose shots, film and edit with confidence. I’ve enjoyed it so much that I am now looking into internships and short courses within the tv and film industry. The most valuable lesson that I learned through this process has been that if you persevere, you can accomplish pretty much anything.”
“Over the last 6 weeks I have been pushed to learn how to use film editing software and stretch my creativity further than ever before. I’ve fallen in love with screen acting and the magnifying glass the camera puts the character under. The creative industry will never go back to how it was, so I’m super grateful that we have already begun to find ways to still create awesome work during this uncertain time.”
At the project’s outset I decided to use PADLET as our online collaboration platform and as support to our Zoom-class encounters. Partly this is because of PADLET’s safety features - it’s designed by teachers for teachers - and also because it is SO user-friendly for first-time users. Neverthless, as you’ll see when watching this short video guide that I created as part of the group’s ‘Welcome!’ content, PADLET’s functionality is a little unusual…
This image below is a screenshot of 1/4 of our private process ‘wall’ - more content was accessible to our company members by scrolling to the right and also down-screen. Clicking on an image took us to a linked external web-page OR a different wall that had been created by company members.
A screenshot of ‘The Boy Universe’ process wall, using Padlet.
The ‘Welcome!’ content that I added to our PADLET also contained a ‘How to Use PADLET’ guide that you can access HERE…
…and, to enhance our online safety, I devised an ‘Online Community Code of Conduct’.
A screenshot of the project’s Online Code of Conduct.
In addition, I created a ‘Guide To FREE Video Making and Editing Tools’ wall, to help ensure that all learners could participate fully within the project, regardless of their experience with video-making technologies or the devices that they’d be using. The wall featured info and web-links to the best free apps and software available for each kind of device, alongside ‘how to use’ videos for each app. You can access this ‘Guide To FREE Video Making and Editing Tools’ wall by clicking the image below.
‘A Guide To FREE Video Making and Editing Tools’ Padlet wall screenshot.
There were four film-making activities embedded within the project’s narrative, each offering progressively higher levels of challenge, inviting more resourcefulness from our locked-down learners and involving greater degrees of online collaboration within their success criteria:
A Day In The Life of You Under Lockdown (1.30 mins in duration).
A Day In The Life of the Character (1.30 mins in duration - the character isn’t experiencing lockdown circumstances).
A Small Moment That Changed Everything for the Character (A short, self-devised film, 2 mins in duration - see discussion below).
A Group Scene Involving Scripted Text from Leo Butler’s Play ‘Boy’ (5 mins in duration - see discussion below).
Each activity culminated in the films being screened within Zoom sessions, with each film-maker invited to self-reflect and also to offer feedback to the films of their peers (the ‘two stars and a wish’ reflection model was employed). Moreover, following each screening session, all learners were invited to add a self-reflection post to a bespoke wall on the PADLET. You can see examples from this reflection process by watching this short video.
“This term has been an immense challenge and learning curve for me (as well to us all) about how to continue to develop and grow new skills under new and unusual circumstances. One skill I’m incredibly pleased to have learned is how to film and use editing software to create work I’m proud of and I would love to pursue this skill even further in the future.”
Leo Butler's Boy depicts the journey of one teenage boy through contemporary London and his brief encounters with over 100 characters. The Boy Universe project ‘flips' that premise: each company member chose one character who appears fleetingly within the play and then, inspired by the character-building exercises that I led within our Zoom classes, developed them into people with dreams, struggles, inter-relationships and social-media lives.
Our third film-making activity involved each company member self-scripting, directing and acting in a short film inspired by the theme ‘a small moment that changed everything for your character'. To help the company develop their short-film making practice I created a PADLET wall that included an artistic brief, offered examples of excellence in the short-film genre and that contained short film-making tips from the BBC Writers Room and the Sundance Film Festival. You can access this ‘Film-Making Task 3’ wall by clicking the image below.
A screenshot from ‘Film-Making Task 3’ wall, on Padlet.
“Before this term I always viewed myself as just an actor, but being pushed outside of this actor box I’d put myself in and being challenged to write, direct, edit, produce and act in my short films showed me that I can be capable of so much more.”
“The skill I have gained and would like to develop is voiceovers. I never imagined that I would be able to use my voice to create a powerful and meaningful story. So I would like to see where voice acting would lead me to. It’s been a great way to end the year! I appreciate this opportunity for me to learn so much.”
multi-platform storytelling
“I am so thankful for the opportunity we have been given to explore trans-media platforms to create out of the box theatre whilst aiming for absolute authenticity.”
In addition to developing learners’ screen acting and film-making skills, The Boy Universe project introduced the group to multi-platform (sometimes called ‘trans-media’) storytelling techniques. We would offer visitors to our web platform the opportunity to experience a tapestry of fictional online content that expands upon the events, circumstances and relationships depicted in each short film. To inspire the company’s ideas, I created the ‘What IS Multi-Platform Storytelling?’ PADLET wall that you see above. You can visit it - and explore the weblinks - by clicking on the image.
Each company member was invited to make a PADLET wall as their character, that could accompany their short-film. The challenge was to create the illusion that it was the character who had posted all the content and that they were real and genuine artifacts from the character’s life. To encourage artistic depth and texture, learners were encouraged to post curated content (web-links to existing online content, appropriate to the character) and to also upload created content (original content created by the company member, in the guise of the character). They were also encouraged to consider how this wall might be a home for both digital and analogue content.
Starter examples that I offered the group can be seen in this activity guide that I created and shared with the group:
The image below illustrates how each short film and character ‘online world’ - a more accessible description than ‘wall’ - appears together within The Boy Universe web platform. You can visit this page of the web platform HERE.
Examples of Character Worlds:
Debbie’s World created by Rheanna Trueman.
In Debbie’s World, Rheanna rewards viewers of her short film Britain’s Job Seekers by offering content that expands on incidents within the film. This includes pages from the storybook that Debbie reads to her son Thomas; objects that add more nuance to Debbie’s challenges as a young mother; (fake) Facebook conversations (with invented characters), letters, application forms and CVs that paint a more vivid picture of Debbie’s financial struggles.
Visit Debbie’s World HERE.
Mysha’s World created by Lauren Gillbanks.
Lauren created a rich pallette of content that accurately expresses the interior life of a nine-year old girl who subconsciously longs to escape her small and limiting world. Highlights from Mysha’s World include a family tree (all branches invented, plausibly, by Lauren); an e-book photo album chronicling Mysha’s childhood development and a Powerpoint Presentation that Mysha has created for a school project.
Visit Mysha’s World HERE.
Kate’s World created by Saphron Wilkinson.
Saphron clearly enjoyed the meta-possibilities that the activity offered her! In Kate’s World, alongside content that includes Vlogs, a lonely hearts ad on a dating app, a page from a book that contains detailed doodles drawn by Kate during a drawn-out job helpline phone call (an event depicted in Saphron’s short film The Stories We Tell), there is an invitation to visit Kate’s (fictional) Twitter account. One of Kate’s tweets includes a weblink and an invitation to visit the new blog that she has created. Visit Kate’s blog (containing a whole menu of content created by Saphron in the guise of Kate) and you can read pages from Kate’s (fictional) screenplay, Friends of Ours.
Visit Kate’s World HERE.
Toph’s World created by Patrick Wormlington.
Patrick pushes the meta envelope further…
Toph’s World features the character Toph’s Vlogs, text messages, Spotify playlists, estate agents web pages offering a tour of Toph and his wife Soph’s dream home (Soph is a character invented by Patrick) and Instagram posts, including a photograph from the couple’s recent pregnancy scan.
Tucked away in a corner of Toph’s wall you’ll find a link to another Padlet wall - Patrick has curated an additional wall in the guise of his character’s wife, Soph, with equal detail and character authenticity. But that’s not all… Explore Soph’s Padlet and you’ll discover a link to her Teacher’s Blog, each post offering hints to the tensions in the couple’s relationship from Soph’s perspective.
Visit Toph’s World HERE.
You’ll find more examples of excellence below - just click on the images to access each online world.
Paula’s World created by Merida Beasley.
Nat’s World created by Zoe Puleston.
Fred’s World created by Dekyong Webb.
Naomie’s World created by Hannah Bennett.
Chelsea’s World created by Ellie Henry.
Sian’s World created by Destiny Sullivan.
“I am now able to take my ideas from my mind and make them into real pieces of work and actually see it in front of me. Getting my ideas out has also been a real struggle for me and this showed me I can do it and I can make some beautiful pieces of work. Directing and film-making is something I have been interested in before and this has made me think about it a little more seriously. Chris brought energy and commitment which is a great example to learn from and that has be my favourite thing in this 6 weeks. The whole 6 weeks will be something I’ll remember and cherish. ”
online-MEDIA PRODUCTION teams
“At first I thought: ‘’There’s no way this term is happening over Zoom, I’ll hate it!!’’ However, the amazing experiences and laughs I’ve shared with this group over the last 5 weeks have been absolutely priceless and I have made great memories I know I will cherish forever. I really believe the skills I’ve gained and practices I’ve learned during this experience will definitely help me to shape myself into a better artist.”
During ‘The Boy Universe' project the company developed their ‘lockdown' film-making skills within online-media production teams. The idea was that learners with less experience of, or confidence with, e-technologies could be supported by their peers. Organising the learners into problem-solving teams was also super-helpful for the many challenges that lock-down film-making presented us with: How do you film a scene involving three or more characters when the actors are in different geographical locations? How do you create the illusion that these characters are sharing the same location, even though you're filming it at different times and hundreds of miles apart? How do you intermix live-action footage with specially created animation? Where do I set the camera-phone while I'm acting? And can I convince my dad to play the character's school teacher? Each team devised different, but equally ingenious, solutions to these challenges.
You can visit each team’s PADLET process wall by clicking the images below: meet each team member, learn how the project changed them, discover the Zoom theatre games that they invented, journey through the virtual Google Tours of character locations that they created and explore their inventive approaches to ‘lockdown' film-making by watching ‘making of' videos.
“I can’t point to any single moment in the project which I hold dear as an experience, rather the entire project was in and of itself is a really valuable memory I shall keep close. I loved working with my team and seeing everyone’s work at the end. The work and talent which Chris has managed to cultivate over the last 6 weeks over Zoom calls is really phenomenal.”
When The Boy Universe project began, none of the company had any experience of film-making. Five weeks later, the project culminated in the company, in teams, utilising all of their newly acquired 'lockdown' film-making skills to transform scenes from Leo Butler's play into short films. It’s certainly one of the most challenging plays that you could attempt to film under lockdown: most of the scenes are very short, feature three or more characters, take place in outdoor locations and involve physical exchanges between characters. You can watch each of these scripted short films HERE. As you’re watching, remember NONE of the actors could physically meet one another and are seperated by hundreds of miles - sometimes in different countries! [For copyright purposes, that web-page is password protected.]
Watch the ‘Making Of’ video near the top of this page to fully appreciate the time, resourcefulness and creative investment involved in each films’ making.
“This term has challenged me far more than I knew it would. With such an emphasis on imagination and creativity, it has made me even more passionate about the arts and the power it has, even in such a strange time. At the beginning of the process I was convinced my only skill was making a Spotify playlist. However, I’m now confident in filming, writing, editing and just in general trusting my artistic choices.”
Google Virtual tours of character locations
As part of the multi-platform experience that we offer visitors to The Boy Universe web-platform, each team has created an immersive, 360 degree tour of character-led locations using Google Tour Creator, with pop-up images and character story info. These virtual tours were particularly helpful in inspiring our film-makers’ imaginations whilst confined to their homes as a result of lockdown. To take each team's Virtual Tour, simply click on the Tour images.
FLAMING ARROWHEAD’s Google Virtual Tour.
NETHER ZONE’s Google Virtual Tour.
MOLLITIAM’s Google Virtual Tour
PERSPECTIVE’s Google Virtual Tour.
For an even more immersive experience, once on a tour, click on the white 'cog' icon in the top right of the screen and then activate the two audio options that appear…
…a team-created sound collage will then accompany your tour!